The paranoid person misperceives stimuli as attack on him and attacks in self defense

THE PARANOID PERSON SEES ANALYSIS AS ATTACK ON HIS FALSE, GRANDIOSE SELF.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji

I do analysis that appears critical of Igbos. Igbo intelligentsia writes to me thanking me for having the courage to state their real issues. Every week I get letters from well-meaning Igbos thanking me for what I said about Igbo problems.

On the other hand, some Igbo chaps that clearly are paranoid apparently believe that I hate Igbos and want Igbos dead.

The paranoid person invented a false, grandiose self for him and houses it in body and desperately wants that false self to survive at all costs. He is afraid of his egos demise.

He invented a self in form with which he replaced the formless self that God created him as. He wants the self in form he invented to survive at all costs so that he would win his battle with God (the battle is: who created him, him or God, who is more powerful, man or God?) and have his self-miscreation survive and have the son of God, as God created him die.

Paranoid persons are very conscious of how you treat them. If they feel attacked by you they feel like you are out to kill them and counter attack you so as to survive.

One paranoid Igbo character called Nebu Adiele (this is not his true name, he writes under this false name and is shameless that out of fearfulness he denied his identity; he projects his shamelessness to other people and say that they are shameless) posited a false grandiose self and thinks that it is who he is. He defends that false self with everything in his powerless power. He wants the world to see him as he wants to be seen, powerful.

He extended his grandiose self-concept to Igbos and thinks that Igbos are great and wants the world to see Igbos as great.

He sees my analysis of Igbos as an attack on Igbos, read, as an attack on him. He thinks that he is defending Igbos by attacking me.

He has called me all the names that his limited education can muster (I doubt that he even went to secondary school although he claims to be an attorney).

The man reacts defensively to my writing and attacks me; he wishes to take me down and out; he cannot succeed; he is a nincompoop, if he were to try his designs on me I would not hesitate in shooting him dead.

The man sees me as after destroying his ego and body. This means that he values ego and body; self with which he replaces his real self, the formless son of God.

His senseless attacks on me are actually a godsend for me for they enable me to learn how paranoid minds work.

Paranoid persons are partially insane; they are not completely insane. They have delusion but do not hallucinate.

You have to have both delusion and hallucination to be diagnosed as psychotic (that is, as schizophrenic or manic). The paranoid is only partially insane. As such, he can still hold down a job, be a professional. I have dealt with many paranoid medical doctors, lawyers, engineers etc.

Nevertheless, you recognize that paranoids are crazy from the way they take what is meant as general analysis of them and their people as attack on them, as this Nebu fellow does.

I have learned a lot from his warped mind and, as such, ought to be grateful to him.

We learn from every situation we are in and from every person we encounter. I have learned about the workings of delusion disorder by observing the deluded Nebu Adiele. The man appears to be making sense but actually is not making sense; he merely confabulates, makes noise.

Ozodi Thomas Osuji is from Imo State, Nigeria. He obtained his PhD from UCLA. He taught at a couple of Universities and decided to go back to school and study psychology. Thereafter, he worked in the mental health field and was the Executive Director of two mental health agencies. He subsequently left the mental health environment with the goal of being less influenced by others perspectives, so as to be able to think for himself and synthesize Western, Asian and African perspectives on phenomena. Dr Osuji’s goal is to provide us with a unique perspective, one that is not strictly Western or African but a synthesis of both. Dr Osuji teaches, writes and consults on leadership, management, politics, psychology and religions. Dr Osuji is married and has three children; he lives at Anchorage, Alaska, USA.